Doctor Who to get Mr Men Makeover

Doctor Who is getting an unexpected makeover in the form of Mr Men, with the first four Mr Men designs being based on crowd favourites Tom Baker, William Hartnell, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

All 12 incarnations of the Doctor will be getting the Mr Men treatment, and will be drawn in the style of Roger Hargreaves, the creator of the show. His son, Adam Hargreaves, has written and illustrated the new book series.

As mentioned, the first four books will be based on those particular Doctors, and will be released in 2017 as Dr First, Dr Fourth, Dr Eleventh and Dr Twelfth.

Apparently, this idea was inspired by numerous unofficial Mr Men and Doctor Who mashups done by fans.

Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, had this to say on the project: “There’s a sense that since the adult Ladybird books last year, there has been a market for ironic takes and mash-ups from old classics done with a new twist.”

“This clearly taps into that same market, it’s sort of the perfect Christmas gift book, or in this case Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.” With these types of book it’s all to do with getting that combination of humour of nostalgia right.”

We also saw something similar with the reboot of the Ladybird book series How it Works, which released titles such as The Hangover, The Hipster and The Mid-Life Crisis.

Alastair McHarrie, Licensing Director of Japanese gift company Sanrio, also chimed in: “There is a wealth of unofficial fan-created content online. We wanted to give something back to these supporters so we’ve created the first official Hargreaves mash-up. Who better to partner with than another classic British property, Doctor Who. We couldn’t be more excited.”

So far, it seems the designs are spot on – I particularly like Dr. First, they have captured the stern nature of William Hartnell’s Doctor pretty well.